to make complaint about ticket inspector who detained child and took their phone?

As she is close to 16 proof of age ID would be good. I am tall and a conductress on a bus 30 years ago tried to get me to buy an adult ticket and was really horrible and aggressive and threw me off. I had to walk 5 miles at night in a dodgy area in the rain at 14. My mum was absolutely raging. She called the bus garage and went through them. A few weeks later I was on the bus with my mum and it was the same conductress. My mum had her shaking and made her apologise. Mum is a tiny woman but she is not to be messed with. After that I always carried proof of my age and had to use it quite often. As a PP said a picture of her passport might be enough.

@Dubuem
It is of no consequence about which box is ticked as both are correct.

i should add some trains do have conductors- I got caught out recently when tapping in on oyster but didn’t realise I could not tap out at the station I was going to as out of zone and I was going somewhere I had never been. So I didn’t have a valid ticket at the point whilst on the train. My mistake 100% - it didn’t even occur to me. So what did he do? He sold me the ticket on the train and then walked off. No bother. No fine. That is how it should be.

I don’t see it as taking a risk. She is 15 with a group of friends . It is always better for teenagers to stick together. For her to have to get off on her own, buy another ticket and have to wait for the next train is ridiculous. It is 30p. She was perfectly prepared to pay at the other end- what difference did it honestly make whether she paid at the start or end of the journey? . Plans change . There used to be guards who could sell tickets on a train. Not all children have bank cards they can use on a phone to be able to buy a ticket so they are at a disadvantage to adults. I strongly believe that once a child gets on a train the train company assumes a duty of care to the child. Therefore a degree of leniency is expected. In this instance she had a ticket but was 30p short on the fare. She should have been allowed to had paid it and given the benefit of the doubt and told to carry ID for next time as she may get stopped again.

@faceid81 your level of scrutiny of these events is bloody weird, you sound obsessed

"here you have to give your name and address - if not they call the police. If you give it you get a fine, and if you can go to the local ticket office within 2 weeks and prove your age, that you had a valid ticket, etc, it is cancelled."

Isn't that what she was trying to avoid, the police, by proving she was under 16? Presumably she chose to show him her Vinted app as proof.

It made me feel really uncomfortable for your daughter reading this. It raises so many red flags, I'd definitely report it. He's even lied/made a mistake on the fine report. Do you have your daughter's original ticket still?

Really weird and he’s clearly on a power trip! I’d report him. What happens if he had come across something indecent?

so would I 100% !

As others have said, definitely report the inspector - his behaviour was far worse than hers.

Apologies, I thought ticket inspectors were the conductors on the train that check your ticket when you travel.

If you believe she was treated unfairly then definitely contact the rail company - do most rail staff now wear body-cams?

Christ I’ve never seen anyone so over-invested in a thread. Grilling the OP like you’re heading up some sort of parliamentary inquiry. Get a grip!

@SmellsLikeTeenSpirits
Ok, first things first - legally a TI can stop children and 'hold' them while checking their age & confirming details like an address. It doesn't matter what box is ticked on the penalty notice - it's still valid. By travelling beyond their ticket an offence has been committed and a penalty notice is payable etc as per railway bylaws.

Now, what is definitely wrong and potentially illegal is the way the TI conducted himself.
He can not stop anyone making a call - he can ask someone to terminate the call but there's nothing a TI can do if the request is refused.
Neither can a TI stop someone from answering their phone - again they can ask for the person to not take it but there's nothing a TI can do if a person refuses.
A TI can not take someone's phone off them and withhold it while searching the phone. They should definitely not be looking through the phone unless asked by the person stopped. Permission should be explicitly sought to view anything other than the ticket (which can/will be photographed).
If someone presents themselves as a minor then they must be treated as such unless it is very obvious that they are not - such as a person in mid-twenties pretending to be 14 for example.
At no point should a minor's request to speak to a parent be refused unreasonably - particularly if a parent can provide proof of age or the child is distressed etc.

Please report this incident today and make an official complaint so that CCTV footage can be retrieved etc as quickly as possible. This individual is abusing his 'power' at worst and needs retraining at best. My friend works in train revenue for a different company and says that the TI's behaviour is very wrong if your DD's account of the encounter is correct (sorry have to add that just in case but her account/witnesses should bear out as true from what you have related here).

in the circumstances you describe he has no more authority to detain your daughter and seize her phone than a random man on the street.

complain and complain loudly. It’s totally unacceptable.

nah, he massively overstepped the mark. Complain to the CEO. I wonder if he'd have done the same to a strapping 6' lad! I think we know the answer to that.

Wtf?!

give it a rest eh? Your take a break style detective skills are really boring

and shit

Absolutely report and in your place I would be taking your daughter to report it to the police.
Power hungry bully, intimidating a young girl.
Ignore the usual nasty responses on MN.
Absolutely report this.
I would be furious at her property being taken from her.

Her friend should have called the police or another adult. That is not ok behaviour. He wouldn’t scroll through a man’s phone would he.

I was at the train station with a broken ticket machine. I took a pic with me visible in the reflection from the non-working screen, in case I got any bother about it. On the train I could see the 'Revenue Protection' folk, who are clearly outsourced bouncers and their company will be getting a slice of the fines too, I suspect. I managed to avoid talking to them (they were moving down the train away from me). When I got off the train I said to the guy "I need to buy a ticket from the airport as the machine wasn't working" and he just waved me through the gate. I'll take that

For the sake of 30p! Your poor DD. I'd be absolutely raging.

I wonder if he’d treat a man in the same way?

please complain

He has no authority to do this, definitely complain.

They have a Revenue Protection policy (https://www.gwr.com/help-and-support/penalties-and-enforcements). I'd read that to see if they've complied with their own policies. On the Revenue Protection policy document the final page has contact details for who to contact if you're not happy.

The Revenue Protection and Counter Fraud Strategy document includes the statement "We will... treat all our customers with respect and dignity"

In none of the documents can I see that they can demand proof of age or identity for that matter. They can issue penalty notices, but nowhere does it talk about being "detained".

I would be fuming too OP.

tbh this is why we need ticket offices with people in them to sell you tickets. It is far far far too easy to buy the wrong one from a machine. You might also get the wrong one from the office, but at least then it's not your fault they sold the wrong ticket (unless you asked for something else)

Absolutely complain.

Some train inspectors really are arseholes who get off on the power. They can be racist from what I’ve seen and also pick on young people. A middle aged smartly dressed lady who can’t find her ticket gets treated completely differently.